Consolidated Kansas

[cherwill]

Whew, I'm tired tonight. So here I am instead of going to bed ...
It doesn't seem like I did anything very difficult, but I was on my feet in the kitchen almost all day. I made about 11 cups of apple sauce with some apples from my MIL's neighbor's tree. She never harvests the apples, so she's always telling people to come and get whatever we want. I also made a dessert to take to my aunt's tonight, and had to get dinner ready for my niece so she could eat the one hour between when I picked her up from work and had to have her at the high school for band camp. I peeled and seeded a bunch of tomatoes and roasted them. I also canned a couple of pints of caponata, but they don't seem to be sealing properly. Tired as I am, I can't go to bed until the Olympics are done, then I thought I'd just stop in here for a minute, and you know how that goes!

My chickens had a good day. They got apple peels, tomato peels and guts, and cantaloupe rinds Mom brought over. Yep, my mom and my aunt bring all their melon rinds over for the chickens. They may find it a little odd to have chickens in town, but they find me odd so I guess it all makes sense to them.

Hawkeye - I think it was you that wanted to know about where I got the kennel I have my chicks in. Honestly, I don't know where it was purchased. I got it from my father-in-law when he passed away. He used it for a beagle he had many moons ago. There is a manufacturers tag on it. I could get the info if you want.

On a sad note I lost my beagle "Lucky" of 16 years on Sunday. I had to take her in to be put down. She was just old and in so much pain. Sad day around the house.

I'm so sorry about Lucky. No matter how long they live, it just isn't long enough.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. I am officially old. We went to eat and I asked for the senior discount! Now that is bad. Had I been thinking I could have gotten my dinner free but I didn't realize they did that on birthdays. I went to Orschlen's and got some chick starter. Whoa! The price went sky high! It is no longer beneficial to buy it there when it is as high for a 40 pound bad as Purina is for a 50 lb bag. I am sure Purina will go up too.
So Trish did you still get the feed for $ .17 a pound or had it gone higher? Soy bean meal is pretty pricy so that is going to raise your cost some.
I'm trying to figure out ways to save some $$ on feed short of getting rid of all the birds. Even buying in bulk it is getting way too expensive for me.

Happy birthday! And you spent it buying chicken feed -- that sounds like the kind of big day I would have for my birthday.

 

[Trish44]

Danz, I ended up paying 20 cents a pound for the feed, three cents a pound more than I thought it was going to be. I don't know if she raised it because her cost had gone up or just in anticipation of it going up. Anyway, it's still less than what I've been paying, but if I have to supplement the protein for the other birds I'm not sure how much I will save. Do you have any other ideas for an additive to boost the protein for the game birds rather than soybean meal? I may check with the CO-OP in Arkansas City because they're so much better than the one here in Winfield & see if they have any ideas. I also want to check on how much their layer mix is too because I know they have a cheaper mix they do there of their own. It seems like to me when I checked on it awhile back it was $8.95 a 50# bag. I just don't know what the ingredients on it are or protein levels or anything, so that may be a phone call for tomorrow. This feed I got today is so fine I'm not sure the birds are going to like it too well. I have been feeding my layers pellets for as long as I have had them, so this fine stuff may not go over well, we'll see. I bought close to 100 pounds of this feed today & I'm sure if they're hungry the birds will eat it, but I foresee waste since it's so fine as another issue also.

 

[sunflowerparrot]

Danz, I ended up paying 20 cents a pound for the feed, three cents a pound more than I thought it was going to be. I don't know if she raised it because her cost had gone up or just in anticipation of it going up. Anyway, it's still less than what I've been paying, but if I have to supplement the protein for the other birds I'm not sure how much I will save. Do you have any other ideas for an additive to boost the protein for the game birds rather than soybean meal? I may check with the CO-OP in Arkansas City because they're so much better than the one here in Winfield & see if they have any ideas. I also want to check on how much their layer mix is too because I know they have a cheaper mix they do there of their own. It seems like to me when I checked on it awhile back it was $8.95 a 50# bag. I just don't know what the ingredients on it are or protein levels or anything, so that may be a phone call for tomorrow. This feed I got today is so fine I'm not sure the birds are going to like it too well. I have been feeding my layers pellets for as long as I have had them, so this fine stuff may not go over well, we'll see. I bought close to 100 pounds of this feed today & I'm sure if they're hungry the birds will eat it, but I foresee waste since it's so fine as another issue also.

I will buy it from you if needed - so don't worry if you're birds won't eat it - let me know if it isn't working out for you. You can just dump it into my containers if you need. It took my birds a few days to eat it because it was something new for them.

 

[OzawkieBantams]

Man I am So proud of my corgie dog. she is now hearding my birds back to their pen when I ask here to "Round em Up!". she is doing awesome. good job girl!

 

[chicken danz]

Daren That's great. She looks very clean and pretty in the picture by the way.
Pikeman, I'm so sorry about having to put your dog down. I have these very very old cats and I am afraid I will be forced to do that all too soon. I just hope they will just lie down and die in their sleep peacefully when the time comes.
Trish I would buy some Hog 40% if you are planning to continue to use that feed. A little goes a long long ways. You don't have to add too much to beef up the percentage. I just figured it up, if I did it right. It would be only 2.6 pounds of 40% hog protein supplement for 100 pounds to beef it up to 22%. So a 50 pound back would last you months. It's very pricy too. The reason I would avoid soy meal is that if it isn't used quickly enough it goes rancid. You could also use fish meal but it is really really high.
I wouldn't buy anything though until you figure out if they are going to eat it or not. I have my own mix as well but a lot of the fine stuff just gets spread around. Unfortunately the finest stuff in mine is the protein and vitamin additive. Try mixing some of it with a little water. (Not much cause it will sour if they don't eat it in a shallow pan or something) They will eat at it if it is wet which might get them eating the dry stuff.
We had quite the adventure last night after we got home. DH came in and said he'd seen the one and only surviving baby duck the girls hatched in the yard with the Mom's, and then it just disappeared. He was out looking with a flashlight for it. I came out and looked and looked with another flashlight and didn't find it it anywhere. I finally went back in because I just assumed that somehow it managed to wander off. We never found hide nor hair of the other three that disappeared but now I think I know what happened to them.
Any way DH continued to look because it just bugged him that he knew he had seen it just minutes before. He came back in and said he had found it. I went out to help. This poor baby duck had fallen down one of our humongous cracks and was way down, at least 2.5 feet. We started trying to retrieve him with everything we could find but he kept crawling deeper. We literally ran out of anything that was long enough to reach down far enough. We used a plumbers drain cleaning tool, Bent wire, pieces of rebar, a set of mechanical fingers, you name it and it just kept getting worse. Finally we got the shop vac and put the skinny hose on but we worked and worked trying to get it back to him. He kept crawling and dirt kept falling on him. At this point he was at least 3 feet deep and in a crevice that we couldn't even get access to except by an angle.
I went and got a shovel and started digging into the crack where it continued beyond his head. The only way to dig was to stick the shovel in the crack and pry up a little bit of dirt at a time. Of course more and more dirt kept falling and we eventually pretty much lost site of the duck in the dirt all together. We could no longer see him or hear him. I started digging clumps of dirt out with my hands with my arms stuck down in the crack. And each time we'd get a space wide enough we'd stick the vac hose in to suck up what ever dirt we could get. We are working with flash lights in the dark mind you. It was like a total scramble working as fast as we could before he suffocated. Finally we could see him again but my arms weren't long enough and they were too big to get down to where he was. DH and I worked to get the hole big enough and he finally worked the vacuum hose down in the hole. I turned the vac on and as soon as I heard the clunk I shut it off. There he was in the vacuum.
This is the cut and dry version. We started about 10:30 or so and worked until 2:00 AM to retrieve that duck! Now I understand what an effort it is to recover a child out of a well or something!
The duck was very traumatized. I took it in and forcefully washed out his beak. He was breathing very hard, his beak was bruised, and I wasn't sure he was going to make it. After washing him out I gave him a dose of vitamins. We couldn't get him to eat or drink. (He still hasn't.) He started sneezing and coughing and I finally felt safe to go to bed. He is breathing normal this morning and is very active. He doesn't like us cause he has been raised his 10 days or so of his life by his mother. I'm hoping he will start eating and drinking soon. I had a duck hatch yesterday so I took it out of the hatcher and put it in with him it would calm him.
I told DH that that duck better be a female because it wasn't going any where. I didn't spend 3 and half hours trying to recover it for it to go for someones dinner for a couple of bucks. I do hope it starts eating and drinking soon. I know it is traumatized but maybe it will decide it wants to live. There's no way I'm sending it back out to get buried in some crack out there. I was so angry that we had to get to the point where there is no bottom to the giant cracks in the yard, and they are big enough to loose a bird in. At least that crack is gone. DH took the tractor and hauled dirt and filled the crack. But that doesn't solve the problem of the 1000s others out there just as big.
My arms are torn up. I came back in with trails of dried blood down my arms. I apparently cut them on rocks or something in the dirt in the crevice. I didn't even notice them until DH pointed them out. I don't remember hurting myself while we were out there.

 

[sunflowerparrot]

I think we're going to be in double digits today! 99 is NOT a triple digit

Boyfriend is coming over later (have a pork roast in the crock pot!) after he picks up the materials for the coop at Lowes. We're going to start the floor SO EXCITED! The plan is an 8x12 coop with a slanted roof.. We're going to kind of plan it as we build it Hoping to have it done by the end of the month..

Going to start loading up the dried/mowed cattails stalks so I can use it through winter for dog/cats/chickens. This week looks to be a great week weather wise to get some stuff done outside.

Enjoy the 90s everyone

 

[pikeman94]

Daren That's great. She looks very clean and pretty in the picture by the way.
Pikeman, I'm so sorry about having to put your dog down. I have these very very old cats and I am afraid I will be forced to do that all too soon. I just hope they will just lie down and die in their sleep peacefully when the time comes.
Trish I would buy some Hog 40% if you are planning to continue to use that feed. A little goes a long long ways. You don't have to add too much to beef up the percentage. I just figured it up, if I did it right. It would be only 2.6 pounds of 40% hog protein supplement for 100 pounds to beef it up to 22%. So a 50 pound back would last you months. It's very pricy too. The reason I would avoid soy meal is that if it isn't used quickly enough it goes rancid. You could also use fish meal but it is really really high.
I wouldn't buy anything though until you figure out if they are going to eat it or not. I have my own mix as well but a lot of the fine stuff just gets spread around. Unfortunately the finest stuff in mine is the protein and vitamin additive. Try mixing some of it with a little water. (Not much cause it will sour if they don't eat it in a shallow pan or something) They will eat at it if it is wet which might get them eating the dry stuff.
We had quite the adventure last night after we got home. DH came in and said he'd seen the one and only surviving baby duck the girls hatched in the yard with the Mom's, and then it just disappeared. He was out looking with a flashlight for it. I came out and looked and looked with another flashlight and didn't find it it anywhere. I finally went back in because I just assumed that somehow it managed to wander off. We never found hide nor hair of the other three that disappeared but now I think I know what happened to them.
Any way DH continued to look because it just bugged him that he knew he had seen it just minutes before. He came back in and said he had found it. I went out to help. This poor baby duck had fallen down one of our humongous cracks and was way down, at least 2.5 feet. We started trying to retrieve him with everything we could find but he kept crawling deeper. We literally ran out of anything that was long enough to reach down far enough. We used a plumbers drain cleaning tool, Bent wire, pieces of rebar, a set of mechanical fingers, you name it and it just kept getting worse. Finally we got the shop vac and put the skinny hose on but we worked and worked trying to get it back to him. He kept crawling and dirt kept falling on him. At this point he was at least 3 feet deep and in a crevice that we couldn't even get access to except by an angle.
I went and got a shovel and started digging into the crack where it continued beyond his head. The only way to dig was to stick the shovel in the crack and pry up a little bit of dirt at a time. Of course more and more dirt kept falling and we eventually pretty much lost site of the duck in the dirt all together. We could no longer see him or hear him. I started digging clumps of dirt out with my hands with my arms stuck down in the crack. And each time we'd get a space wide enough we'd stick the vac hose in to suck up what ever dirt we could get. We are working with flash lights in the dark mind you. It was like a total scramble working as fast as we could before he suffocated. Finally we could see him again but my arms weren't long enough and they were too big to get down to where he was. DH and I worked to get the hole big enough and he finally worked the vacuum hose down in the hole. I turned the vac on and as soon as I heard the clunk I shut it off. There he was in the vacuum.
This is the cut and dry version. We started about 10:30 or so and worked until 2:00 AM to retrieve that duck! Now I understand what an effort it is to recover a child out of a well or something!
The duck was very traumatized. I took it in and forcefully washed out his beak. He was breathing very hard, his beak was bruised, and I wasn't sure he was going to make it. After washing him out I gave him a dose of vitamins. We couldn't get him to eat or drink. (He still hasn't.) He started sneezing and coughing and I finally felt safe to go to bed. He is breathing normal this morning and is very active. He doesn't like us cause he has been raised his 10 days or so of his life by his mother. I'm hoping he will start eating and drinking soon. I had a duck hatch yesterday so I took it out of the hatcher and put it in with him it would calm him.
I told DH that that duck better be a female because it wasn't going any where. I didn't spend 3 and half hours trying to recover it for it to go for someones dinner for a couple of bucks. I do hope it starts eating and drinking soon. I know it is traumatized but maybe it will decide it wants to live. There's no way I'm sending it back out to get buried in some crack out there. I was so angry that we had to get to the point where there is no bottom to the giant cracks in the yard, and they are big enough to loose a bird in. At least that crack is gone. DH took the tractor and hauled dirt and filled the crack. But that doesn't solve the problem of the 1000s others out there just as big.
My arms are torn up. I came back in with trails of dried blood down my arms. I apparently cut them on rocks or something in the dirt in the crevice. I didn't even notice them until DH pointed them out. I don't remember hurting myself while we were out there.

Thanks Danz and everyone else for the kind words.

Danz! That is one crazy story! I am glad you got to the duck. I swear these birds are like kids and like kids they will get themselves into the damnedest messes! On another note, what birds do you have that would have black combs?

 

[OzawkieBantams]

Holy Crap...... I guess I should start reading before I just hit post a comment!
pike , very sorry for your loss. I can't imagine what your goig through.

For the record my previous post was not a stab. again I need to start reading back

 

[chicken danz]

Rob, I don't really have any that have black combs other than maybe one of the black cochins. Did that one mixed chick I gave you from the brooder end up with a black comb?
I've got to get another bin set up for my new chicks.
I have family coming in a week or so and really didn't want to have birds in the house. I guess they will just have to understand this is who I am now.
Daren are you and Duck going to be at Gardner next month?

 

[OzawkieBantams]

@Verna, yes we are!